For decades, Christmas has been one of the biggest days of the year for the NBA, and the rest of the American sports landscape has taken a step back on the country’s biggest holiday. But in the last two years, the NFL has made it clear that it now sees Christmas as a big day on its calendar. And the NBA isn’t happy about that.
After leading his Los Angeles Lakers to a Christmas victory over the Golden State Warriors, LeBron James voiced his opinion about that. In his postgame interview on ESPN, James brought up the NFL without being asked.
“I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day,” James said.
The NFL, of course, does not accept that. Before Christmas last year, the league said it was only playing on Christmas because Christmas fell on a Monday, when the NFL is accustomed to scheduling games. League officials claimed the NFL wouldn’t schedule Christmas games in years when Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday or Wednesday. And then last year’s Christmas TV ratings were great, with the NFL easily out-drawing the NBA, and now the NFL acknowledges it’s going to play on Christmas every year, regardless of what day of the week it falls on.
And that means NBA games will no longer be America’s most-watched sporting events on Christmas.
